Mitt: 'I won't cry ... but I do'

12/30/11 7:12 PM EST

POLITICO's Emily Schultheis, on the trail with Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, reports that the front-runner made a not-so-veiled reference to Newt Gingrich's teary performance earlier in the day in Iowa, in response to a questioner raising "crying:"

Here in Merrimack, Romney started talking about his parents and what they meant to him, and how they taught him to love America -- and said, "No, no, I won't cry."

The crowd, Emily says, met the remark with laughter.

UPDATE: Here is the full transcript of what happened. Romney followed up that he cries himself, and that there is no harm in it.

Mitt Romney: “My mom and dad were extraordinary people. They left both left this life and moved on.”

Audience Member: “Don’t cry.”

Mitt Romney: “I won’t cry. No, No, I won’t. But I do. I do. Nothing to be ashamed of in that regard.”

Romney's camp is arguing, strenuously, that Romney was not taking a shot at Gingrich and made that clear with his second comment. At the same time, reasonable observers could make the point that he didn't need to repeat the audience member's "don't cry" line, either.